Abstract

Background

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) infection has a poor prognosis among pregnant women from high
endemic countries. HEV-prevalence and incidence among pregnant women is unknown in
high-income countries such as France. This prospective study was conducted to assess
HEV infection in this setting.

Findings

An overall HEV prevalence of 7.74% was observed among 315 pregnant women. Seroprevalence
was higher in south than in north of France (29.3% vs. 3.6%, p < 0.0001), and women
with detectable IgG were older. No IgG seroconversion or IgM detection were observed
during pregnancy.

Conclusions

Data suggest that HEV infection is a rare occurrence during pregnancy even in regions
of western countries with high seroprevalence rates.